MP’s expenses

So, the latest blizzard of UK MP’s expenses has been published today. The BBC website has leader articles and a link to the main list on Parliament’s web site, which has links for every single MP and each one seems to lead to a medium or large PDF file.

I picked one at random from near the bottom of the long, alphabetic list; Tony Wright.

It didn’t make for a riveting read and I pity the hordes of Newspaper hacks who are now ploughing through them all, looking for anything worth publishing “in the interest of their readers”.

What I did find interesting was the endless telephone bills running into hundreds of pounds every month. Surely, if an MP (well, he) is on the most suitable tariff, he must spend most of his waking hours on the phone!

Lastly, how did he justify over £400 pounds on a camera and accessories? I know it’s not an outrageous price to pay for a camera but how would you justify it as an essential expense for an MP? If I needed one for my job I wouldn’t be able to claim the capital cost of a new one against tax.

If you’ve had an hour to spend browsing these expenses, please let us know of anything interesting you’ve found.